Don’t fritter away our small towns
We stopped in Mo¯ kau for less than an hour. Long enough to flirt with the option of a whitebait fritter but settle on a cup of coffee and a cheese toastie instead. It was New Year’s Day and a flooded evening in a tent in New Plymouth the night before – skipping the traditional countdown in favour of an early night with a book – had dulled our group’s cheer. That morning we struggled to find a seat in a cafe and reluctantly settled on Starbucks, while the rain continued to pound. It was cold. Half drunk coffees went in the bin. ‘‘Let’s get out of here,’’ three of us said. Welcome to 2018. Life sure can be disappointing that way. And so we tied surfboards to the roof racks and drove north, Auckland-bound. Arriving in Mo¯ kau, the gloom dissipated. While the rain clouds hovered over the small town, the landscape and the river gave something back: A glimpse of life outside of the big smoke. Bugger the cafe crowd. Wrap some fish in white bread and sit on the beach instead. Live, a little. It was that time of year when conversations about upping sticks were ripe, and this week here they are again, and let’s really consider them: Mo¯ kau’s Whitebait Inn, campground, and shop, are going for nearly a million bucks. In a coastal town of 75 it’s a daunting amount, but so is the price of a modest home in Auckland, an hour from the city. Not ready for a $1 million investment? Look at Graham and Gloria Putt’s Mo¯ kau Butchery – $450,000 for their home and business, negotiable. Graham says the business is a money-maker but young people will see it as a risk. He is right. Many, young and old, lack the confidence to extricate themselves from life, rote. And who would give up the exciting city for life in the slow lane when you’re young and free? But as people take out huge mortgages in supposedly up-andcoming suburbs a two-hour commute from Auckland CBD, as Wellington’s bus network remains a debacle months after its relaunch, and the cost of petrol hits record highs, it’s time to think differently about how to do life. While young families fight to get on the property ladder in overpopulated areas, business and home packages in small-town NZ go unnoticed. Let’s fix this. Make working from home or flexibly an option for all (where possible). Incentivise big businesses to launch or expand away from Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington for the likes of Hamilton, New Plymouth and Nelson. And let’s look at ourselves, too – faced with the choice of a safe cheese toastie or a whitebait fritter, I wish I’d gone for the latter. The next time I pass through, the opportunity for one might not be there.